School meals make all the difference

A hungry child can hardly be expected to concentrate in studies; schools meals are proven to lead to better academic performance

by Alamgir Khan

Others might wish they could eat their words. There are persons in key positions within today’s caretaker government who, before bidding farewell to the civil society, had made a habit out of campaigning for school meals. Though habits are said never to die, in their case it seems to have been fossilized deep under their memory. But even lost memories can be revived through means of modern medical science or computer technology, they say. So we can keep our fingers crossed to hear the coveted bell ringing some day in near future.
The issue of mid-day meal in our primary schools is very urgent, especially in poverty stricken areas. We have passed years through talks about this, but yet remain far from introducing it anywhere in the country. Our Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, boastfully titled ‘Unlocking the Potential’, does have mention of this. The titanic Primary Education Development Program (II) has mentioned this as a beacon of hope, but it is most likely to embrace the fate of the legendary ship, though without any fall-out in the media, before it reaches even near its destination.
That the main constraint for our education is poverty requires little search let alone research, though, however, many resources have gone into extraordinary scholarly exercises for discovering (!) this. This is the main barrier to access to education that has left about 37 lakh children completely out of school in our country, of course with others like remoteness, disaster proneness, exclusion of community etc. playing out their roles as well. According to some reports, in Bangladesh half the children under the age of five are underweight and stunted and so suffer from reduced mental capacity. With 63 million of our people poor and one-third in hard-core poverty, attending class in empty stomach has been the order of the day. But everyone knows that empty stomach makes the brain empty and thus lowers the level of performance in the classroom. Harassment by desperate teachers in classroom and bullying by despondent parents at home cannot make up this want of nutrition. The consequence is what is inevitable—once thrown out of the education system and then falling into a ditch of misery in life. This outcome awaits most of our children, not because they are dull-brained or empty of intellect; it is because most are empty in stomach while in the classroom.
School feeding program is running in many countries including the neighbouring India. In many schools of Bangladesh World Food Program provides biscuits to around six lakh schoolchildren in over 4000 primary schools. Other NGOs also run some school feeding program in a small scale. These efforts fall much short of the number of hungry school kids who are to be assisted with food in school. This calls for government plan and initiative. In June this year Edward Kallon, Acting Representative of WFP in Bangladesh, said, "Few people know that it only costs Taka 131 in Bangladesh to feed a hungry child in school for a whole month."
A study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in 2003 showed that school feeding in Bangladesh has raised gross school enrolment rates by 14.2%, reduced the probability of dropping out of school by 7.5%, increased school attendance by 1.43 days a month, and improved academic achievement by 15.7%. It has been discussed and agreed many times within our civil society that if local community is involved in the process the contribution it would make to local economy in terms of increased production of milk, banana and other food items depending on local taste and the employment opportunity of the youth herewith for the increased economic activities is enormous. Also to note is that national and multinational corporate bodies in the habit of spending mind-boggling amounts of money for advertisement every year can be drawn into this as part of their CSR (corporate social responsibility) through tax-break incentives and other means.
Mono Mia of Class V and Saleha Begum of Class II in the district of Sunamganj had to come to school without eating any food at home; just the mention of school meal on the lips of a local reporter shined their eyes, eliciting from Mono, ‘Oh, if food were given at school!’ That was in 2006 (published in a local newspaper, Jugobheri, 24 December 2006 issue). It will be heroic of them if they are still in the education cycle. But the bell has not rung for school meals even toady. No one knows yet when it will.